Network World: "Spam filters revealing their darker side"

Last week's "Network World" has an interesting article (excerpts below) on the perils of keyword filters.

In our spam-filtering evaluation, we are taking the majority of the steps (and implementing all of the precautions) noted in the sidebar, with the exception of using IP-based "blacklists" to reject or otherwise limit incoming messages, based on the source IP address. I have tried using lists of "known spam sources" from free or commercial "RBL" services, but have not found any such blacklists that find the right balance between effectiveness and excessive false-positives.


"Spam filters revealing their darker side"
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0909spam.html

Chicago Tribune Editorial on Spam and UCE

I found Don Wycliff's editorial this Thursday very interesting in view of our recent high-level discussions on unsolicited mail, in particular, HTML messages which automatically download and display pornographic images:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0201100043jan10.column

Don hits the nail on the head, stating "Newspapers, which must be as open to the public as possible, ought be loath to close themselves off in any way that can be avoided."

He also mentions the two-year-old Illinois anti-spam law. The act provides both legal remedies if the company suffers "actual damages" (I'd like to see the legal definition of this term), and also protection from liability for "action taken in good faith" to stop spam. The full text of the law (and lots of other good anti-spam info) can be found at this location:

http://law.spamcon.org/us-laws/states/il/ema-91-0244.shtml